


Can't Make a Silk Purse out of a Keythong's Ear

by cheyinka



Category: Long Live the Queen (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-01-24 07:28:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1596602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheyinka/pseuds/cheyinka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elodie is twenty years old. Her father has, ever since he used a mysterious artifact five years ago, been unable to remember anything that happened more recently than Elodie's birth. Accordingly, she has asked for a healer to come from the druid enclave on Mt. Neda - but instead, the Duchess of Hellas sent Elodie's cousin, even though Elodie had ordered her cousin's whole family banished from Nova...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the Shade of an Apple Tree

**Author's Note:**

> It's never stated in-game (except that it celebrates the end of winter and involves planting a tree), so I am putting the Festival of the Good Lady on February 1st, which would put Elodie's birthday (a.k.a. the Festival of the Queen's Birthday) 24 weeks later, so some time around July 19th.
> 
> Given the inconsistency in how Elodie is referred to while she's still the Crown Princess, I decided to go with "Your Radiance" as the ruler's title, and handwave the inconsistency as people not being sure how to refer to her after her mother's death but before her coronation.

"The healer from Hellas is here, Your Radiance," Alice said.

Elodie looked up from the book she was reading. "Already?"

"Yes, ma'am," Alice said. "She is waiting for you in the garden. I have set your robes out for you."

Elodie carefully marked her place in the book and set it aside. "Thank you, Alice," she said, trying for queenly gravity but fearing she sounded like a nervous child. She allowed herself to be helped out of her dress and into the ankle-length alb, waited patiently while her maid arranged her hair into a priestess's veil, but then arranged the stole and belt herself. Then she smiled at her maid and said, "Please let the king-consort know that the healer is here, and ask him to inform my father."

She wasn't optimistic that her father would understand why a healer had been called, or remember the conversation longer than a day, but Adair was more likely to convey the information in a helpful way than her father's valet or one of the other servants would be.

Alice curtsied. "Yes, ma'am," she said, and left as quietly as she'd arrived.

Elodie looked down at her robes, brushed an imaginary speck of dust from her belt, and then headed down the stairs from her study. The guards at the bottom of the stairs came to attention as she passed, and one of them joined her.

"I don't think I need protection in the garden, Rudolf," Elodie said.

"Pardon, Your Radiance," the guard said, "but you don't know that. Not with those witches still out there."

Elodie sighed. "Fine," she said, knowing she sounded sulky. The guard had a point - with three Lumens at large, and some of the Mervan commoners still resenting her, going out where only a hedge separated her from the world really wasn't safe. (Still, what would one guard be able to do against a magical attack?)

It was a relief to step outside into the sunlight, and leave the gloomy thoughts of assassins behind. The healer was sitting on the ground at the base of an apple tree, wearing robes much like a priestess's alb but hooded, and brown, rather than white. Her hood was up, in fact, hiding her face in shadow.

"Your Radiance," the healer said, just above a whisper, and curtsied.

"Thank you for agreeing to come here," Elodie said, disconcerted by not being able to see the healer's face. She had never met a healer that did that, though she had never met a druid, either. "Is... is it customary for druids to hide their faces?" she asked, hesitantly.

"I'm not a druid, Your Radiance," the healer said, no more loudly than before. "But if Your Radiance would permit, I would ask not to have to reveal my face in mixed company."

Elodie stood there for a moment in startled silence before realizing that a response was needed from her, but before Elodie could figure out what to say, the healer went on, "I was met at the castle gates by two priestesses of the Second Circle, Aurora and Phoebe. Either, or both, of them could verify that I am who the Duchess of Hellas has sent."

"Should I send for them, ma'am?" Rudolf asked.

"No, thank you, Rudolf," Elodie said, and gathered up her robes so that she could sit near the apple tree. "Please, join me," she said.

The healer nodded, and sat back down facing Elodie. "Thank you, Your Radiance," she said.

"How much do you know about my father?" Elodie asked. "I mean, about why I asked the enclave to send a healer."

"That he faced an invading Lumen as a Lumen himself, collapsed after defeating the invader, and remembers very little since," the healer said, promptly.

"He -" Elodie stopped, pressed her lips together, and then went on, "He doesn't remember much at all since I was _born_. He recognizes me, he knows I am not an infant and that I am the Queen, he knows my mother has died, but if I am not there he isn't even able to guess at my age, or his own, and he doesn't recognize anyone else unless he met them before I was born."

The healer nodded. "The letter also said the palace healers had been no help?" she prompted.

"They did not know why he collapsed, or why he slept for an entire moon, or why he awakened when he did," Elodie said, "and they haven't been of any help to him in regaining his memory. But the priestesses thought that perhaps someone trained by the druids might be of assistance, so I asked the Duchess to send a messenger to them."

The healer nodded again. "Forgive me, Your Radiance. The priestesses might be of assistance here, after all."

Elodie turned. "Please bring them, Rudolf," she said.

"Your Radiance!" he began, clearly about to protest, but Elodie shook her head. "I will be fine here until you and they return, Rudolf."

Rudolf nodded. "Yes, Your Radiance," he said, and sprinted away.

The healer folded her hands in her lap. "Thank you, Your Radiance," she said.

"Of course," Elodie said, uneasily. "Um. Right. I waited to ask, because we hoped his memory would return, but..."

The healer nodded, silently, and Elodie lapsed into silence herself.

It wasn't long before Rudolf came sprinting back. "They're on their way, ma'am," he said, scarcely sounding out of breath.

"Thank you, Rudolf," Elodie said, and smiled at him.

He smiled back, briefly, then resumed looming over her shoulder.

It took a few more minutes for the priestesses to get there - both of them were walking, not running, though at least they were walking _briskly_. Elodie didn't recognize one of them, but the other was clearly Aurora, who had been one of her Faith tutors before Selene had fled and her only Faith tutor afterwards, which made the taller one Phoebe.

"Thank you, Sisters," Elodie said, standing as they approached. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the healer standing as well.

"The guardsman said you wanted us to confirm that this is the healer, Your Radiance?" Aurora asked.

Elodie shook her head. "The healer asked for you herself, actually."

The woman in question nodded. "If you can confirm that I am the woman you met at the castle gate, and that I am the healer that was sent here, perhaps the guardsman could leave us," she suggested, quietly. "Since the two of you would be here to protect Her Radiance, and he would surely come if you shouted."

"Yes, let's do that," Elodie said, firmly. She seated herself back on the grass.

"Yes, ma'am," Rudolf replied, obviously reluctant.

The healer walked to the other side of the tree, and the priestesses followed. "This is the healer we met at the gate, Your Radiance," Phoebe said, after a moment.

"Thank you, Phoebe," Elodie said. "You may go, Rudolf."

She heard his steps through the grass, and then onto the paving stones, and then stop. Elodie turned to look, and saw him standing in the open doorway to the castle, his back against the inside of the doorframe, facing the other side of the doorway.

"It's good that your guards are so vigilant, Your Radiance," the healer said, sitting down across from her again while the two priestesses sat just behind the healer. "Do you always have to have a guardsman with you in the gardens?"

Elodie shook her head. "Only after - well. It doesn't matter."

The healer pushed back her hood. "Only after you ordered Lucille banished from Nova?" Charlotte asked.

Elodie found herself at a loss for words for the second time that hour.


	2. Still by the Apple Tree

"The Duchess of Hellas told us that the daughter of that traitor was the best healer she knew," Aurora said, anxiety in her voice. "No deception was meant, but with Your Radiance's decree, we thought -"

"The plan was to see if I could be of assistance without revealing my identity," Charlotte interrupted. Elodie didn't hear any nervousness in _her_ voice, but then again Charlotte had been speaking barely above a whisper the whole time. "But I couldn't..." Her voice, already very quiet, trailed off into silence, and she looked down at the grass.

"If you can help my father, I will grant you the Duchy of Merva in your own right," Elodie said, firmly. "And if you are even able to tell me who might be able to help, I will lift your banishment, and your brother's and sister's."

Charlotte nodded, and moved her hood to hide her face again. "I really _am_ trained as a healer, Your Radiance."

"I remember when you..." Elodie stopped, remembering that Charlotte had asked her not to tell anyone.

"Healed your leg?" Charlotte finished. "As soon as I first became able to do that, I wanted to study everything about healing. My mother permitted it, as long as I studied what the tutors she picked directed as well. That was almost two years before we met the milk viper."

"How - how did you end up with the druids?" Elodie asked.

"I never did," Charlotte said. "I meant it when I said I wasn't a druid. But for how I got to Hellas, well, at first I stayed with my mother, because she told me the soldiers were after us because you hated Lumens and wanted to burn us. She was able to hide us from sight, and she said we were going to go to Yeveh because they don't have any Lumens there and so no one would know that she was a Lumen... but then we got to Lillah and I found out she wanted the Duchess to start a civil war and put me on the throne instead."

"She what?!" Elodie said. "Duchess Arisse?"

Charlotte shrugged. "I don't know what she said to my mother. I don't know if she ever even talked to my mother, because I ran away. Somehow my mother never found me, if she even looked." She looked down at her hands. "I woke up the next morning and couldn't speak, and I suppose she thought that was enough to keep the secret. I made my way into Mead - I remembered your letter about Briony sneaking back to Lampsi Island with you and I hoped she might still be home."

"She was in Kigal, wasn't she?" Elodie said.

"No, she was there," Charlotte replied. "I convinced her that I wasn't going to hurt you and I just wanted to get out of Nova, and so we decided we were going to try to get me into Ixion, where they have that hospital, and I was going to be a healer there."

"Is _that_ why she didn't go to Ursul after I was crowned?" Elodie said. "She said she was going to stay with her father when I talked to her at the coronation feast, but then she sent me a letter saying she was going to visit her cousins in Kigal first. Her father came to visit a few weeks later asking if I knew where she was, and I showed him the letter, but I didn't think to ask about it when I saw her and her father at the Festival of the Good Lady."

"That's why, yes," Charlotte said. "We got through the mountains into Hellas, and... well, the Duchess of Hellas convinced me to stay there."

"That was five years ago!" 

"There's more to the story than that," Charlotte agreed, "but I think that's enough to explain how I survived, why I'm still in Nova, and why I'm not still with my mother."

Elodie nodded. "It is. I'm sorry." She smiled. "What name are you going by as a healer?"

"Flora, Your Radiance," Charlotte said.

Elodie nodded. "We have prepared a room in the castle for you, unless you would prefer to stay with the priestesses?"

Charlotte shook her head. "I would prefer to stay in the castle. Thank you, Your Radiance."


	3. By the Frog Pond

Just over a week later, Elodie and Adair were in the stables, having just returned from an early morning ride, when one of Elodie's maids hurried in, followed by Charlotte. The latter was still dressed in the hooded robe she'd worn before, and the hood was still concealing her face.

"Healer Flora," Elodie said, in surprise. "Is something wrong?"

"Your Radiance, Your Majesty," Charlotte said, curtsying. "I would speak with you, if you have time."

"Both of us?" Adair asked.

"You are welcome to join us, Your Majesty, if Her Radiance has no objection," Charlotte said.

Elodie looked over at Adair. Her husband lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug.

"Where would you like to speak with us?" Elodie asked.

"How about the frog, I mean, fish pond?" Adair suggested. "We'll see anyone coming, and there's open space on three sides and the wall, not the hedge, on the other."

Elodie looked over at her husband again, startled - but then nodded; if Charlotte had wanted to speak with her in the castle, she would have waited, rather than have a maid lead her to the stables. "If that suits you, Healer Flora?"

"Certainly, Your Radiance," Charlotte said.

Adair waved one of the grooms over to tend to the horses, and then he led the way to the fish pond. A guardsman followed them from the stables, but stayed out of earshot.

"I used to catch frogs with Her Radiance here," he explained to Charlotte, cheerfully. "I suppose that's not the sort of thing that a king-consort should be doing, though."

Charlotte giggled - Elodie was reminded of the fun she and her cousin had in the gardens, before her mother died - and said, "If Her Radiance approves, who can say no to you?"

Elodie settled herself down on one of the metal benches, and waved the others to sit on either side of her, smiling. "What did you need to talk to us about?" she asked, once they were seated.

"I need to know as much as I can about the duel, Your Radiance," Charlotte said, bluntly. "The King-Dowager's valet said that they would be returning to Caloris after the Festival of Fishes."

That was only three days away, so Elodie understood Charlotte's urgency, if not why she wanted to have the conversation _outside_.

"I wasn't there," Adair offered immediately. "When we heard that the Shanjians had requested to speak to Her Radiance, some of the guardsmen and I snuck out of the castle, and then out of the town and off the Island, so that everyone could honestly say they didn't know where I was." He looked down at the paving stones. "I hated having to run away, and not knowing what was happening."

Elodie rested her hands palm-down on her lap and closed her eyes. "I remember our fleet sailed out to meet the invaders on the day of the full moon, and they asked to meet with us eight days later. So we met the enemy Lumen nine days after the full moon, at dawn."

All of a sudden, she could smell the smoke in the air from that morning, and taste the strong tea she had drunk instead of eating breakfast. "We didn't know they were sending a Lumen. We expected a diplomat or an admiral. The king was trying to make me angry from the moment we met, but I knew if I said anything he'd just go back to his troops and they'd kill everyone, so I just thought about how hungry I was and how much I needed to act like a queen.

"And he said he wanted to have a contest to see which one of us would rule Nova, and since the rulers of Nova were always Lumens, he wanted a formal Lumen duel. But I'm not a Lumen, so he said I should find my crystal and then he would duel me." Elodie took a deep breath. "And I asked him why he didn't just kill me, and he said because he didn't really want Nova, he just wanted my crystal, and he only wanted to get it by killing me while I was a Lumen. So I said I had no choice, and my father... my father stepped in front of me."

She felt tears beginning to trickle out of her eyes, but managed to keep going. "He said, "Not my little girl! If you want to fight the Lumen ruler of Nova, fight me!" And I knew he wasn't a Lumen, but he took something blue out of his pocket and put it over his heart, and he said, "Illuminate!" and a veil of blue light, like a thousand blue snowflakes all falling at once, fell over him and just... melted into his skin. The room felt like lightning had struck just feet away, but without any thunder.

"It all made the invader so _happy_ , like killing my father would be even more enjoyable than killing me, and I tried to ask what my father was doing and he told me to, to sit down and be quiet because I was not the Queen yet, and then the Shanjian king taught my father how to ward a circle for dueling, and then they took their places inside the circle and just... just looked at each other, for what seemed like an hour, before my father summoned up fog that went from the floor to the ceiling and covered a third or maybe half of the circle.

"Then the invader summoned butterflies, glowing butterflies, which chased away the fog, and when it was gone my father was just standing there with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. The invader's fingers began to glow, and then little lights just crawled off his fingertips and joined together in this... this blob of firelight in front of him and then the blob flew at my father, who was still just _standing_ there with his eyes closed.

"The ball of light hit my father and there was a horrible sound, like metal giving way but louder and more shrill, louder than the loudest thunder, louder than being right next to a cannon when it fires. It felt like my bones were shaking, like my ribs were going to break apart, and I fell to my knees, just watching my father stand there, and then the sound stopped and it seemed like the firelight _bounced_ off his chest, like a tennis ball hitting a wall. And it went back towards the Shanjian, moving even faster, and when it hit him there was a noise like... like the moon falling to the ground, like everything in the world screaming. And then the noise stopped so suddenly that I thought I was deaf, and Togami fell like he had been shot in the heart."

Elodie wiped her face with the back of her hand, then felt Adair putting a handkerchief against her palm. She took it and scrubbed at her eyes. "And I stood up, to go to my father, and he just crumpled, like his legs didn't work anymore. His eyes were still closed, but he was breathing. All his muscles had gone limp except he had something in his right hand and he was holding it so tightly that we were afraid we'd have to break his fingers to get him to let go of it. We got him to his chambers, and his valet put him in bedclothes, and his right fist was still clenched so tight that his knuckles were white. And then after that... he just stayed like that until a few hours after dawn, nine days after the _next_ full moon, when he let go of the artifact he was holding and opened his eyes. It was a little black mirror, smaller than his palm - it's in the treasury now."

"That explains why he doesn't have much use of the hand," Charlotte said, calmly, as if they were discussing a tennis injury. "Would you have the artifact brought to me, Your Radiance? Unless the healers have already tried showing it to him, I suppose?"

Elodie took a deep breath, and then another, and finally opened her eyes. "They've tried," she said. "I have, and the King-Consort has as well. He doesn't seem to recognize it, or know anything about it, or understand that he's a Lumen now. But I will go myself and retrieve it."

"Thank you, Your Radiance," Charlotte said. "I am doing everything I can for him, I promise."

"I know," Elodie said. She scrubbed at her face again, and tucked Adair's handkerchief into her pocket. "Do you want to meet with my father outside?"

"I don't think the artifact should be taken outside," Charlotte said, "at least not yet. I will wait for you in the guest quarters, Your Radiance. Thank you."


	4. Around the Castle

Retrieving the mirror should have been easy. Getting into the treasury certainly was; all Elodie needed to do was walk up to the guards, wish them each a good morning, and wait for each of them to use their key on the door's two locks. But once inside, it seemed like everything was glittering, even glowing, and one little gold box in particular seemed to shine more brightly than the rest. Elodie had been inside the Treasury before, of course, but nothing had seemed abnormally luminous _then_.

After a few moments, she shook her head a few times and proceeded to the glass-doored cabinet that held the consecrated plates and utensils used for the Festival of Loaves. On the bottom shelf, behind a chalice, sat a leather pouch; Elodie retrieved the pouch, tucked it into her pocket, and left the treasury.

Charlotte was waiting, as she'd promised. She stood as Elodie came in and said, "Thank you, Your Radiance."

"Of course, Healer Flora," Elodie said, and handed over the pouch. "Whatever you need to help my father that is within my power, I will gladly do."

Charlotte raised an eyebrow.

"I will," Elodie said. "Though I forgot to ask: does my father know your, uh, birth name?"

"He met me after you were born, because I'm younger than you are, so since he hasn't recognized me..." Charlotte left her sentence unfinished and shrugged before continuing, "I thought you were exaggerating when you said he didn't recognize _anyone_ unless he met them before you were born, but you really weren't, were you? The only exception I've found so far is the King-Consort."

"That's why I have the King-Consort bring messages from me so often," Elodie said. "If my father remembers him, clearly his mind isn't... isn't _only_ in the past, and anything that helps there, will help."

"Why _did_ you wait?" Charlotte asked, then added, "Your Radiance."

"A lot has happened in the last five years, _Healer Flora_ ," Elodie said. "I didn't want to reveal that the Duke of Caloris was... impaired. Everyone knows the story of how he faced Togami, Invader King, in single combat on the invader Lumen's terms and won, and I didn't want to lessen those stories."

"By admitting he didn't escape uninjured?" Charlotte said. "Admitting that would _lessen_ his heroism? What does that say to anyone else who fights and wins but doesn't escape uninjured either?"

"He didn't lose an arm in battle! His mind is trapped twenty years in the past!" Elodie said, feeling angry and defensive all out of proportion to Charlotte's question.

"So he lost a... _mind_ arm," Charlotte said, waving her hands around like she was trying to catch a piece of paper blown off the table. "It happens with people who get hit in the head too hard, just like getting hit in the shoulder too hard ruins an arm."

"Have you had any luck in healing his _mind arm_ , then?" Elodie asked, trying to calm herself down.

"Not yet, Your Radiance," Charlotte said. "I'm trying to figure out if, if it is poisoned, or broken, or burned, so I know whether I need an antidote or a cast or a poultice." She lifted the little yellow pouch that Elodie had handed her. "Maybe this will help."

Elodie took a deep breath and nodded. "I hope so, Healer Flora," she said. "If there is anything else I or the King-Consort can do for you, please tell us what it is." She took another deep breath and walked out of the guest quarters.

She wanted to go back to her study and wait for Charlotte to return. (To be honest, she wanted to go back to her study and sketch flowers all day, or curl up on her bed with her collection of toy fish and pretend to tell them stories about Nova, the abovewater country they could only dream of visiting, and pretend to hear their stories about Avon, the underwater country _she_ could only dream of visiting.) But she wasn't a child anymore; she had responsibilities to Nova.

So instead she went to a meeting with the Royal Treasurer, and then she went to a meeting about upkeep for the Cavalla Canal, and then she went to a luncheon with representatives the Maree Sand-Gatherer's Guild, and after _that_ she had to review the plans for the tournament that was scheduled for the fifth anniversary of her coronation. After that, there were letters to read and answer, and a speech to write for her visit to King Fulbert Boarding School in Mazomba, the school she'd attended before her coronation. 

Supper, at least, was just her and Adair, and somehow neither of them brought up 'Healer Flora', or mind injuries, or anything less cheerful than whether Adair's stepsister Adele, Countess of Tanagra, was going to win the archery tournament for a second year in a row.

After supper, Elodie (with a guard trailing behind) went to the castle grove to meditate. She set aside her worries about her father, and her worries about Charlotte, and her worries about whether the Duchess of Hellas might have had sinister motives for sending a banished outlaw to court under a pseudonym, and instead concentrated on visualizing each of the twenty-seven trees in the grove.

Suddenly, her meditation was interrupted by Charlotte's voice: "Your Radiance? You're _glowing_."

Elodie breathed in as deeply as she could and held the breath for exactly nine seconds before letting it out, then said, keeping her eyes closed, "It happens when I meditate, sometimes. The priestesses have told me it's 'an echo of my destiny,'" she answered, quoting Aurora.

"Do - would you - may I write my mentor and ask if she knows anything about it, Your Radiance?" Charlotte asked. "She mentioned something similar, when I first met her."

Elodie nodded, and let the glow dissipate before opening her eyes. "Yes, you may," she said. "Do you have word about the King-Dowager?"

Charlotte looked down. "I..." She took a deep breath. "I can't heal him, your Radiance. It's not something to _be_ healed."

Only her recent meditation kept Elodie from springing to her feet in anger, and it was still enormously difficult to remain calm as she said, "He thinks it's still the year I was born and it's not something to be _healed_?"

"It's something gone wrong, but it's not something broken," Charlotte said, as cautiously as if she thought a single wrong word would result in her immediate imprisonment. "I think I know what happened, and seeing you meditate makes me think I'm right, but if I'm right it _definitely_ isn't something that can be healed, and if I'm wrong it's just not something _I_ can heal."

"And you need to ask your mentor," Elodie said. "To know which it is."

"Yes, Your Radiance," Charlotte said.

"Would it help if she came here?" Elodie asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "Do you think you could heal him _then_?"

"She cannot," Charlotte said, looking away.

Elodie frowned, but finally nodded. "Let me know what she says," she said, finally. "I know you won't hear back before the Festival of Fishes, but I want to know as soon as she replies to you, even if it's more bad news."

"I'm sorry, Your Radiance," Charlotte said. "I wish I had good news to offer you."


	5. On the Balcony and in the Study

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This section is what I had written first - it just took the first four chapters to get here! The plot is thickening...

The Festival of Fishes came and went, and another week besides, before Charlotte requested a meeting with Elodie again. She didn't specify a place or a time, so Elodie asked her to breakfast on the patio of the Queen's Tower.

The summer morning was unusually chilly, and steam rose in clouds from the coffee pot, the loaf of freshly-baked bread, and the platter of fried eggs. Charlotte arrived just as the cook's helpers finished setting out the plates.

"We will serve ourselves," Elodie said, and the servants curtsied and left.

Charlotte pushed her hood back, then shivered. "Awfully cold for more than a week after the Festival of Fishes," she said.

"The sky's so clear, though," Elodie said, helping herself to two eggs and a generous spoonful of cheese sauce.

Charlotte opened her mouth to say something, and then an owl hooted. The two women looked at each other. "An owl in daylight," Charlotte whispered.

"But where is it?" Elodie said. "I can't see it."

Charlotte shook herself, like a dog shaking off water. "Not all omens are meant for you, Your Radiance," she said, but she didn't sound entirely convinced.

"Did you - did you hear from your mentor?" Elodie asked, determined to sound cheerful.

"I did," Charlotte said, determinedly spooning sugar over a little pile of berries. "Do you know anything about Lumen crystals, Your Radiance?"

"Only what the priestesses taught me. Not everyone can use them, only those who've inherited the ability, and having the ability attracts danger when it's used," Elodie said. "And that after the Doomshadow, the crystals belonging to the dukes and duchesses who had died defeating it were destroyed."

Charlotte tasted her berries, frowned, and added more sugar before saying, "That's enough to start with, yes. Every Lumen has an affinity for some element or action. The former Duchess of Ursul has an affinity for earth, for example."

"The earthquake, when she escaped!" Elodie exclaimed.

"Exactly," Charlotte agreed. "You and I are children of Lumens, and more importantly we are children of Lumens who used magic _while_ we were in the womb. _We_ can display that affinity without a crystal - mine is healing, and yours might well be light. Seeing you glow in the grove is what made me realize what had happened with the King-Dowager."

"His affinity is... having a broken mind?" Elodie asked, raising an eyebrow.

Charlotte took a bite of bread rather than answer. Elodie waited, restlessly tapping her toes in her slippers, but finally Charlotte swallowed the mouthful and said, "No, I think it's _concealment_. His first spell in the duel, his _only_ spell in the duel, was a fog to hide himself from his enemy. And just like you glow instinctively, he _hides_ instinctively."

"You think he's hiding from what happened," Elodie said, wide-eyed. "His 'mind arm' isn't broken, it's... it's hidden inside his shirt?"

"Yes!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Exactly! He wanted to protect you, but he also wanted nothing to do with magic, and he had an artifact that he thought might protect him, so all he wanted to do was hide. And that's what he did."

"For five _years_?" Elodie asked. "Why hasn't he... come back?"

"From what my mentor remembers of the King-Dowager, he hated magic and he hated that your mother the Queen ever had to use it, and so I'm sure he hated that he was the first Duke of Caloris in a hundred years to activate the Caloris crystal," Charlotte said, stirring her berries thoughtfully. "In order to stop hiding, he has to accept that he _is_ a Lumen, and I don't know that anyone who isn't a Lumen could convince him to do that."

"Is your mentor a Lumen?" Elodie asked.

"She is," Charlotte said.

Elodie waited for Charlotte to say something, but the other woman just ate her breakfast. They sat in silence until Elodie had finished her fried eggs. As she wiped the remainder of the cheese sauce from her plate with a bit of bread, Elodie asked, "Could your mentor help him?"

"I don't know," Charlotte answered.

"You're being intentionally unhelpful!" Elodie accused.

"What do you want me to say, Your Radiance?" Charlotte asked, folding her hands on the edge of the table. "My mentor is a Lumen. Her affinity isn't healing. I don't know if she would be willing to come here, given your past actions as far as Lumens are concerned."

"You said she remembers my father," Elodie said, a horrible suspicion causing her breakfast to sit uneasily in her stomach. "Did he meet her before I was born?"

"I believe so, Your Radiance," Charlotte said, still sitting very still with her hands folded.

Elodie pushed her plate to the side, annoyed. "Fine, don't tell me. You said your mother took away your ability to speak. Did it come back on your own?"

"No, another Lumen helped me, Your Radiance," Charlotte said.

"Not your mentor," Elodie said.

"That's correct, Your Radiance," Charlotte agreed.

Elodie sighed, and ground the heels of her hands into her eyelids. "And I suppose she wouldn't be willing to come here either."

"I don't know, Your Radiance," Charlotte said.

"You're doing that to irritate me," Elodie said, but wearily, not angrily. "Would it help if I went to Hellas with you?"

Charlotte opened her mouth to reply, then shut it again, looking thoughtful. After a moment, she said, "It might. I will write my mentor."

"That's the most I can hope for from you, I suppose," Elodie said. "Do you have the artifact?"

Charlotte handed her the leather pouch.

"Thank you," Elodie said, and sighed. "I'll return this to the treasury." She paused. "If it would be faster to send word through the Duchess of Hellas, do that; I can seal a letter if you like."

"It would be faster," Charlotte said. "Thank you, Your Radiance."

By the time Elodie had arrived in the library after returning the mirror, Charlotte was already done with her letter. Elodie sealed that letter (with the glittery pink wax Adair had found for her for her birthday), and then wrote a short note to the Duchess of Hellas asking Brin to give the enclosed letter to 'the mentor of the healer you sent'. Once that letter was sealed around the first, Elodie left Charlotte and took the letters to the dovecote.

The messenger pigeon left its cage and headed southwest in silence. Elodie watched it go, and then just as it vanished from sight, another pigeon came into view.

"Is it coming _back_?" she muttered to herself.

"No, ma'am, that's one of our birds," the bird-keeper said. "The feet is painted, see? That's so it's known it's yours."

"Thank you, Jorge," Elodie said, pretending not to notice Jorge's startled smile as she used his name, and waited for the pigeon to arrive.

The letter that the pigeon had brought was sealed with the running horse emblem of the Duchy of Lillah, and was addressed to Elodie herself; it felt like it contained at least one other inside. As Elodie carried it back to the castle, as carefully as if it were lethally sharp on all four of its edges, she spotted an owl feather on the steps. She stopped and stared at it, remembering the hooting she and Charlotte had heard, and then hurried inside.

Fortuitously, Alice was in the hall, and stopped when she saw Elodie rushing inside. "Are you all right, Your Radiance?" she asked, worried.

"Do you know where the King-Consort should be this hour?" Elodie asked.

"In the Cerise Office, meeting with the diplomat who'll be replacing Ambassador Justin in Talassee, ma'am," Alice said, promptly.

Elodie had to smile. "How do you remember all of that? No, never mind, thank you. Please have someone interrupt that meeting and have him join me in my study," she said.

"Yes, ma'am," Alice said, curtsying, and hurried off.

Elodie stopped the next servant she saw and asked _her_ to tell 'the healer from Hellas' that her letter had been sent; then she went up to her study.

Alice was already there, setting out a coffee pot and three cups. "The King-Consort is on his way, ma'am," she said.

"Thank you, Alice," Elodie said, settling into a chair and placing the letter on the table in front of her. She glanced over at her desk, briefly, but then shrugged - if she or Adair needed anything from the desk, they could get it, and she didn't want Adair to have to sit on the other side of the desk from her like a petitioner.

Adair arrived shortly thereafter, just as Alice finished pouring a second cup of coffee. "What is it, Elodie?" Adair asked.

Elodie held up the letter. "This arrived, and there were... I saw an omen. I thought it would... that I would like you here, when I opened it."

Adair nodded and accepted the cup of coffee from Alice. When Elodie's maid had left, Adair said, "I appreciate that. Even if it's good news, it's nice to have news from home right away."

Elodie managed a smile, and broke the seal on the letter. There were, indeed, two smaller letters inside, both addressed to Adair; she slid them across the table and skimmed the outer letter.

"Oh, no," she said, just as Adair cracked the seal on the first letter.

"What is it?" Adair asked, sounding much more worried than when he'd arrived.

"Your step-mother," Elodie said. "She was strangled in the middle of the night, and no one saw or heard anything."


	6. In the Study and by the Frog Pond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Festival of Fishes and the Festival of Loaves would be equally separated from the Festival of the Good Lady - so say February, June, and August.

Adair unfolded the letter in his hands so quickly that he nearly tore it. "This letter's from Adele - she says Kiran's out of his mind over this, he's imprisoned every guard who was on duty that night, every one of Duchess Arisse's guards no matter where they were, and he's not even staying in the keep himself."

Elodie went back to her own letter. "That's odd, this letter is from Adele as well," she said. "She's asking if I've heard anything about Lumens still in Nova, and how soon I can confirm Kiran as Duke of Lillah, but it almost sounds like she's asking me to invent a delay." She frowned at Adair. "Is there something I'm missing?"

"It's really _weird_ that _no one_ saw or heard anything," Adair said. "You never stayed at the capital on Lillah, did you?" When Elodie shook her head, he went on, "The rooms all lead one into the other - there aren't any hallways, or servant passages, or anything like that. And my step-mother has had a maidservant sleeping in the room with her for a few years now, because she needed help getting out of bed ever since she broke her ankle. Adele used to, but when you named her Countess of Tanagra she moved to her own room in the keep when she's not in Tanagra."

Elodie nodded, slowly. "What's the other letter?" she asked, glancing at it.

Adair reluctantly set the letter from his stepsister down and picked up the other one. "It's from Thaddeus," he said. "He says he will be coming with Kiran to the capital unless you plan on going to Lillah to confirm Kiran there, and he says I don't need to come for the burial, unless you plan on going to Lillah and want the burial to be delayed." He shuddered.

Elodie shuddered, too. "I don't need them to delay the burial so I can see a dead body!" she said. "And I don't see why I need to go to Lillah, unless you want to go and want the excuse of an official visit?"

Adair shook his head. "I loved my stepmother, but I was never all that close to any of her children except Adele, and I don't... I don't want to go see her body. Especially not if she was _strangled_." He shuddered again. "I wonder if it was Kiran who found her, or something."

"Wouldn't the maidservant who sleeps in the room be the first to see her?" Elodie said. "Wait. Is _she_ okay?"

They both turned to their letters, and eventually looked back up at each other. "No mention of her in either of mine," Adair said, "but Thaddeus wouldn't, of course, and Adele was more concerned that I knew that something was going on with Kiran."

Elodie nodded. "Adele didn't mention it in mine, but then I wouldn't have known to ask if you hadn't mentioned it," she said. Then she sighed, rubbing at her eyes, and went on, "There's over a month left before Birthday Day, so I can't just ask him to wait until then." Something kept nagging at her, and she couldn't put her finger on what.

Adair wiped at his eyes, trying too-obviously to be inconspicuous about it, and then said, "You could ask to wait to confirm Kiran until Arisse's murderer is found, perhaps?"

"That's - that's actually a really good idea," Elodie said. "Do you think they think the maidservant did it? Is that why they're not mentioning her?"

"I hope not," Adair said, shuddering. "To repay her trust that way?"

"I think it is something I need to know before I confirm his inheritance of the title," Elodie said, in her best royal voice. Then something else occurred to her, and (not in the I-rule-all-Nova voice) she asked, "Wait. Adele's letter mentioned Lumens?"

"Ye-es," Adair said, picking it back up and moving his finger beneath the words. "Here." He handed the letter to Elodie, pointing to one sentence.

"'Has Her Radiance said anything about Lumens returning to Nova? I hadn't heard anything here since Mother warned us to keep an eye out for the Countess of Nix, years ago, but it's so hard to imagine that no one at all heard anything at all without some sort of witchcraft helping the murderer escape,'" Elodie read. She handed the letter back, frowning. "There's something I'm trying to remember, and I can't... Charlotte!"

"What?" Adair said.

"The healer," Elodie said. "Her given name is Charlotte, she goes by Flora because of how widely published the Mervan traitor-family's names were - but her mentor in Hellas might know something," she said, feeling guilty at how easily she put together a plausible reason for her exclamation.

Adair nodded. "I... think I'm going to cancel the rest of my appointments today," he said, wiping at one of his eyes again. "There wasn't anything that can't wait, as far as I remember."

"If there is, have your secretary send them to me, or I suppose to my secretary," Elodie said, firmly. "Go do what you need to do, Adair."

"Thanks, Elodie," Adair said, and even managed a smile. "I need to write a letter, I think, but..."

"That can wait, too," Elodie said. "If I hadn't had to send a letter myself, we still wouldn't have this news, because I don't read my letters this early in the day and the outer letter was addressed to me, alone."

Adair nodded, silently.

Elodie reached over to the bell-cord and shook it gently. Alice appeared so quickly that she must have been in the servant's hallway already.

"You called, Your Radiance?" Alice asked.

"Could you take - no, could you get the King-Consort's valet here, and have _Ryan_ take him back to his rooms through the back hallway?" Elodie said. "Then I need you to send his secretary and my secretary here."

"Yes, ma'am," Alice said, vanishing back into the hallway.

Adair raised his eyebrows. "They're going to think I'm hiding under your desk."

"I promise not to say anything one way or the other on the matter, Your Majesty," Elodie said, as solemnly as she could manage.

Adair managed another small smile. "Thanks."

While they waited, Elodie pushed Adair's coffee cup over to him, as well as the sugar dish. "Sugar will help," she suggested.

Adair accepted the cup, but shook his head at the sugar. "Maybe, but... I don't want any," he said, in an unusually meek voice.

"Do I need to catch you a frog?" Elodie asked. "I can catch you a frog."

Adair shook his head again.

Since that had failed to cheer Adair up, Elodie just sat in silence with him, until Ryan finally emerged from the same small doorway that Alice had used. "Your Radiance, Your Majesty," he said, bowing.

Adair set his cup down and stood up. "Her Radiance thinks you should sneak me back to my room," he said. He carefully pushed his chair back against the table. "Duchess Arisse has died," he added, in the same matter-of-fact voice.

Ryan paled, and Elodie remembered, suddenly, that Ryan had come from Lillah with Adair; she didn't even know whether he was from Elath or Lillah originally. Still, all he said was, "Yes, sir," and held the curtain aside for Adair to pass into the back hallway.

Rearranging Adair's appointments was simple enough once their secretaries arrived; after that, Elodie (with Rudolf just behind, of course) went to the grove. She was pleased to spot Charlotte there, quietly speaking with two of the palace healers; that would make her next task easier.

The priestess Phoebe was more than willing to plan a small service for the late duchess, and by the time that conversation was over, Charlotte was done speaking with the healers, and clearly waiting to see if Elodie needed her.

"Ah, Healer Flora," Elodie said, as if she hadn't been hoping to find Charlotte in the grove. "Do you have a moment or two?"

"Of course, Your Radiance," Charlotte said.

"Perhaps we could speak out by the pond, again?" Elodie asked.

"Certainly," Charlotte said.

The two of them (and Rudolf) headed back out of the grove.

"I overheard some of that, Your Radiance," Charlotte said. "The King-Consort must be very upset."

"He's sad for his step-mother, of course," Elodie agreed. She glanced around - no one nearby except Rudolf. "Do you think you'd be willing to speak with him?"

"About his step-mother?" Charlotte said.

"Or yours," Elodie said, deliberately casually. Before Charlotte could protest, Elodie went on, "This is not for the grove to know, until something comes from Lillah to say otherwise, but Duchess Arisse was murdered," and Elodie dropped her voice to a whisper even quieter than Charlotte's speaking voice, "and no one, not even the maid sleeping in her room, heard anything."

Charlotte had leaned in to hear Elodie's whisper, but jerked away as Elodie finished her sentence. "I see," she said. "And you think I might be able to... be sympathetic?"

"Or helpful, perhaps. Did your healer's training cover determining causes of death?"

"No, Your Radiance," Charlotte said, but then she shrugged. "But I suppose I could tell whether someone died from a fall or before the fall, if that's the kind of thing you're asking."

"We were speaking earlier about affinities," Elodie went on.

"Yes," Charlotte said. "My voice was restored by someone whose affinity is seawater. It was taken by someone whose affinity is absence," she went on, obviously reluctantly.

"Seawater," Elodie said. "Salt water." Something was trying to percolate out of her memories, but whatever memory was emerging too slowly, and she set it aside for the moment.

"Yes," Charlotte said again.

"And absence. Of sound?" Elodie asked.

"Or of light, or of air," Charlotte said.

Elodie _knew_ she hadn't mentioned that Arisse had been apparently strangled; the surprise made her short of breath herself for a moment. "Enough to make it seem that someone was strangled?" she asked, after what she knew was too long of a hesitation.

"Someone strangled would have marks on her neck," Charlotte said. "Smothered, perhaps."

"Countess Adele said 'strangled' in her letter," Elodie said, feeling like the conversation had gone off the intended path and started plummeting off the side of a cliff.

"Indeed, Your Radiance?" Charlotte asked. Elodie wished she could see the other's face; it was so difficult to hear emotion in the other's voice, and body language alone wasn't enough without expressions to assist.

"Yes," Elodie said. They had reached the pond; she sank down onto one of the benches and stared at the fish, not really seeing them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Charlotte sitting as well.

"You asked if my mentor would speak with you if you went to Hellas with me," Charlotte said, after a moment.

"Yes," Elodie said.

"Under the circumstances, I think you should know - the reason she will not come here is that she was imprisoned here, years ago," Charlotte said, very slowly, as if translating each word from Borealian.

"And if I issued her a pardon?" Elodie said. "And sent it with a courier, with the money to buy the fastest horses in Hellas and bring her back? I need to know what we can do, if I'm right about who killed Duchess Arisse. I was planning to send word to Kiran, her heir, that I will not confirm him until the identity of his mother's murderer is known, but - will that make him a target as well?"

Charlotte shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "I don't even know what to guess."

"Why _now_?" Elodie asked. "Why not five years ago?"

Charlotte didn't say anything for a moment - then, very carefully, she repeated, "Five years ago."

"Yes?" Elodie confirmed, puzzled.

"The Countess's son was born on your birthday, Your Radiance," Charlotte went on.

"I remember," Elodie said. "Mother made Uncle Laurent bring his youngest daughter to the capital for her Third Birthday, and his son was five, and so terrified of being outside!" She smiled.

"And how old were you, Your Radiance?" Charlotte prompted. "It was just after the Festival of Loaves, and he was five; his sisters were three and nine..."

"And I had just turned ten," Elodie said, her smile fading as the puzzlement returned.

"You're just about to turn twenty," Charlotte persisted. "Which means that on the Queen's Birthday, he will turn..."

"Fifteen," Elodie breathed.

"Duchess Arisse never said anything to you about anyone approaching her about anything," Charlotte said, obliquely.

"No," Elodie said. "But Countess Adele asked in her letter today if the King-Consort had heard anything about Lumens in Nova." She shook her head. "I need your mentor to come here." She stood up. "I'm going to write a pardon, and you are going to go with a courier, and you are going to convince her to return to the castle."


	7. In the King-Consort's Suite

The trip from Lampsi Island to Hellas was normally a five-day ride, but Charlotte and Iriena (the courier) had left that afternoon on the fastest horses available, with money to change horses at least once along the way, again in Hellas, and at least once on the way back. Still, Elodie couldn't imagine that they would cut off more than two days from the trip - there would be more than a week before Charlotte and Julianna (her mentor _had_ to be Julianna - who else could it be?) arrived.

Lillah was the same distance away, or a little further, which meant Elodie couldn't just ask Kiran to come to Lampsi Island as soon as possible, since if she did he (and possibly Lucille!) would beat Charlotte and Julianna to Lampsi Island. She couldn't delay too long, though, and she needed Kiran firmly in Lillah and Lucille dealt with before Emry turned 15 - and that was only a month and a half away!

Finally she decided to send a letter by pigeon to Kiran, asking him for details of the Duchess's death. The bird had taken a day to get to her, so this one would take a day to get back; that'd be three days since Duchess Arisse had died, and perhaps by then they would know something. She was careful to make it sound like she was worried for his safety and her own, and simply wanted to know what had happened before she decided whether he should come to her or she should go to him.

Letters of sympathy had to go out next, of course; Arisse had had six children and nine grandchildren, and all of them needed a letter from the Queen. At least Kiran wouldn't require a regent - he was nine years older than Elodie herself. Those could go by courier, at least.

Then, a letter to Connor, Earl of Ishtar, asking him to send someone to the funeral in Adair's stead; she set that one aside for Adair to look at, since he might have a suggestion, and surely he'd want to add a note to his uncle.

Next, she met with the captain of the guard, and had him increase the guards - she didn't have to mention Lumens, just the sudden death of one of Nova's duchesses, for him to readily agree.

She had lunch with representatives of the Pistachio Growers Association, who were delighted to meet with the Queen instead of the King-Consort (and then appropriately dismayed to hear that it was because of the King-Consort's stepmother's death), and then heard petitions from commoners for the afternoon. She and Adair had been invited to a dinner, but partway through the afternoon Alice informed her that Adair had sent both their regrets, due to his stepmother's death.

After court, therefore, Elodie went directly to Adair's rooms once she'd changed out of her formal gown and into an ordinary dress. He was awake when she arrived, sitting with the pegs for a game of solitaire out on the table but not in the board and twiddling the pegs around.

"Are you doing all right?" Elodie asked, joining him at the table.

"I thought I was," Adair said, "and I don't know why this bothers me so much."

"She raised you," Elodie said. "Even if her oldest children could have been your parents, she still raised you."

"I feel disloyal to my own mother," Adair admitted, in a quiet voice. "For not remembering her."

"You weren't even a week old when she died," Elodie said, as gently as she could. "She wouldn't blame you for thinking of Arisse as your mother - your father married her when you weren't even three years old yet."

"And he's why she couldn't remarry," Adair said, glumly.

"Not for anything _he_ did!" Elodie exclaimed. " _No one_ marries more than three times, and she obviously wanted to marry your father - it isn't as though either of them needed an heir, after all."

"I suppose," Adair said, flipping a peg across the table.

Elodie caught the peg. "I was thinking sandwiches for dinner. Unless - do you want something more than that?"

"No, I had lunch," Adair said, accepting the peg back from Elodie and setting it into the board. "Just some bread and butter, though."

"Well, the kitchen wasn't planning anything for us, since we were going to be dining at the Countess of Baiamare's house," Elodie said. "So we won't offend anyone by having sandwiches. We could have apple turnovers, too - there were apple turnovers and cheese flowers at lunch, and I'm sure there's still some left."

"Cheese flowers sound good," Adair said, suddenly. "I don't know why, but they do."

So dinner was ham sandwiches, apple turnovers, and cheese flowers - the latter still warm from being fried.

"I sent Healer Flora back to Hellas to bring her mentor back," Elodie said, over her second apple turnover.

"Hmm?" Adair asked, playing with the remnants of his sandwich.

"When I said she went by Flora because she had the same name as the girl from Merva," Elodie began, and then Adair interrupted.

"She is her, isn't she?" Adair asked. "She really is a healer, though, right?"

"Yes and yes," Elodie admitted. "She wanted her secret kept, and I was going to keep it, but I didn't want to keep it from you, not when I'm having her bring her mentor."

"Are you going to pardon her? Or at least allow her to stay in Nova as herself?" Adair asked.

"I don't know," Elodie said. "I think she'll be in more danger if I do that. But I'm sending her with a pardon for her mentor, so if they want me to pardon her, too, I can do that when she returns."

"For her ment-" Adair stopped mid-word and stared at Elodie. "You're serious."

"It's not her mother," Elodie said.

"I suppose that narrows it down to one of the _other_ three Lumen fugitives," Adair said, wearily.

"You know, I just now realized that of the three of them, the only one I tried to execute was the man," Elodie said, feeling dizzy like she was standing on top of the tallest tower in the castle.

"And not the one who actually tried to kill you," Adair said, thoughtfully.

"That's strange," Elodie said. "You're right. He was on trial for murder, but when I sentenced him to be executed, he just... sat peacefully in jail until the morning of his execution."

"And Julianna sat peacefully in jail until everyone was out of the palace at the parade, and the priestess didn't hurt anybody or break anything, she just used water to cover her escape," Adair went on, "so it's really just Lucille that tried to kill you."

"Three times, in fact, before she blew up my soldiers," Elodie said. "Which is why I sent 'Healer Flora' to retrieve her mentor. Apparently Lumens all have some kind of... connection, or something, to an element, and Lucille has a connection to nothing-ness, or at least to the absence of sound and light."

Adair stared at her, wide-eyed. "And you think that's why no one heard anything," he said.

"Yes," Elodie said. "I think it is. And I think it's _terrifying_. How can guards protect us if they can't see or hear anything going wrong?"

"Smell?" Adair suggested. "We could have them have dogs."

"But then the guards still won't know where the danger is," Elodie said. "And if she sees them with dogs, maybe she can use magic to make smell go away, too."

"Yeah," Adair said. "If you came here to make me feel less depressed, it did kind of work."

"Really?" Elodie asked, surprised.

"Yeah, just now I'm afraid instead," Adair admitted, ruefully.

"Me too," Elodie said. "But if Lucille wanted to strangle me in the middle of the night, she's had plenty of opportunities. I think Duchess Arisse refused to lead a rebellion, and so Lucille waited until her own son was about to be old enough to rule and then..." She stopped, and shook her head. "I don't know."


	8. On the Balcony, in the Study, and in the Guest Suite

Four days later, Elodie and Adair were having breakfast when Alice brought in a letter. "You asked for any letters from Lillah to be brought immediately, Your Radiance, and this just arrived." Alice said.

"It's from Kiran," Elodie said, immediately. "But he sealed it with his seal, not the ducal seal."

Adair pushed his plate aside. "That's... interesting," he said.

Elodie cracked the seal and began reading it. "Well, he doesn't sound... unhinged, or anything... oh, no."

"'Oh no'?" Adair echoed, worriedly.

"He says that they had no idea who had murdered Duchess Arisse, but she was definitely strangled, and with a rope or a chain rather than hands," Elodie said. "And that he would have been angry at having his confirmation as duke delayed because I was too timid to go somewhere that someone had been killed, but he understands I came to the throne very early..." She pressed her lips together, before continuing, in a exaggeratedly cheerful voice, "and so he will wait to hear whether I am coming to Lillah or requiring him to come here, but I don't have to worry about my safety, because the murderer has been caught, and proven to be a Lumen, but unfortunately he died attempting to escape."

"'Proven to be a Lumen,'" Adair repeated. "Did he say how?"

"No, he doesn't say," Elodie answered.

"And Thaddeus seemed to expect that Kiran would be coming here," Adair said. "But Kiran seems to expect you to go to him."

"You're right," Elodie said, frowning. "That's odd. I suppose what I should do is ask how he was proven to be a Lumen, isn't it? If this isn't actually related to Lucille, having a method of detecting Lumens would be very helpful."

"You should write Adele, too," Adair suggested. "She might have details Kiran does not."

So Elodie did just that, and then answered all the rest of the letters her secretary brought her, signed and sealed some that had been written for her, and then went about the rest of her day.

Every so often something reminded her of Kiran's letter, though, and she brooded on it every moment her mind wasn't too busy to worry.

Around noon the next day, she was in the stillroom grating horseradish for an infusion when someone knocked gently on the door. A moment later, Rudolf poked his head in. "Pardon, ma'am, but a page has brought a letter for you."

"Thank you, Rudolf," Elodie said. "I'm almost finished."

She forced herself to remain calm and avoid hurrying through her work; finally she was fitting a cork into the bottle for the infusion. Washing up and cleaning the workbench took only a few moments more, and finally she rejoined the guardsman outside the stillroom.

He handed her the letter. "No one's been by since I knocked, ma'am," he said.

"Thank you," she said again, and went up to her study, Rudolf just behind.

All she could tell on the way was that the letter didn't seem to contain anything else, and bore the standard courier's seal - one of the bird-keepers might have known which duchy's bird had brought it, but without that information, all Elodie could do was guess. It was too soon for a reply to her letters to Kiran and Adele, anyway.

Once she had been seen safely at her desk, and waved away an offer of coffee, Elodie opened the letter. To her surprise, it was from the courier:

> Madam:  
> I have arrived in Hellas. Flora and I were met by her mentor and a priestess. They claimed to have divined Flora's location upon receiving a letter from her, and to have set out to purposefully meet us so as to reach Your Radiance sooner. The three of them should arrive thirteen days after the Festival of Fishes. Flora requested I continue to Hellas to inform Your Radiance of the news. She specifically asked that I add these words: if we have not arrived by fifteen days after the festival, assume milk vipers.  
> I have the honor to remain, Madam, Your Radiance's obedient servant,  
> Iriena

Thirteen days from the festival was tomorrow; 'assume milk vipers' surely meant 'Lucille has prevented us from reaching you'. That warning, and the news that Charlotte and Julianna (and an unidentified priestess) were on their way, somewhat cancelled each other out - worry over Lucille and annoyance at Kiran were all replaced by an acute sense of how weighty her responsibilities as Queen were.

She had lunch with Adair, and as she picked gloomily through her fish salad, Charlotte's casual comment, "My voice was restored by someone whose affinity is seawater." came back to her.

"Sea water!" Elodie said, suddenly.

"What?" Adair asked, looking up from his own lunch.

"Healer Flora said that her voice had been restored by a Lumen whose affinity was for sea water," Elodie said. "And the courier I sent with her sent me a letter saying that Flora, her mentor, and a priestess were on their way. The priestess who escaped when Julianna escaped did so under cover of conjured salt water!"

"Do you think Duchess Brin knew who Charlotte's mentor and healer were?" Adair asked.

"I'm certainly curious," Elodie replied.

Making that deduction didn't really improve Elodie's mood any, but at least her afternoon and evening kept her too busy to brood. She ordered an additional guest room be set up for 'Healer Flora's mentor from Hellas', and prepared a formal announcement of Julianna's pardon to be distributed once Julianna had arrived.

She couldn't sleep that night, though. Her suite was quite dark since it was both the new moon and a very cloudy night, and every shifting shadow seemed to promise a new threat, but she was too proud to waste lamp oil because she was afraid of the dark.

It felt like she had only just dozed off when, in the thin grey gloom just before dawn, Alice shook her awake. "Your Radiance," she murmured, "you asked to be informed as soon as Healer Flora returned."

Elodie sat up, blinking groggily, and tried to force sleep away as Alice lit the lamps. "She's returned?"

"Yes, ma'am," Alice said.

It was a struggle to get out of bed, and she was grateful that Alice didn't even ask her what she wanted to wear, instead selecting a dress and helping her into it without a word.

By the time Elodie made it out of her tower and into the room set aside for 'Healer Flora', Charlotte, Julianna, and Selene (as Elodie had guessed), had changed out of their traveling clothes and were sitting at the table with coffee.

The three stood as Elodie came in. "Your Radiance," Charlotte said, "I've brought you my mentor, as you requested."

"Thank you for inviting me back," Julianna said. "Especially for inviting me back as myself."

Elodie smiled wanly. "I knew from speaking with 'Healer Flora' that I needed your help," she said.

"Knowing when you need help is important for a monarch," Julianna replied, somehow sounding regal despite obvious exhaustion. She put a hand on Selene's shoulder. "This is 'Healer Ersa', who somewhat healed Flora's muteness."

Selene curtsied. "I am honored to meet Your Radiance," she said, without a trace of irony.

"Please, sit back down," Elodie said, heading over to the table. "Did you travel all night?"

"We had been traveling by night, actually," Julianna said, sitting across from Elodie and retrieving her coffee cup. "It's a little easier when you don't need a lantern." A small glowing orb, about the same color as coffee with milk and about the same size as a coffeepot, appeared over the table.

Elodie forced herself not to jump back, and was surprised at how accomplished she felt at Julianna's approving smile.

"I suspect the healers will want to sleep for at least a few hours, but as long as I'm in bed by sunset tonight I'll be fine to stay awake," Julianna went on. "Flora has filled me in on what you knew when she left. Have you learned anything new?"

"Only that Arisse's murderer was apparently a man who was proven to be a Lumen but then was killed attempting to escape," Elodie said.

"'Proven to be a Lumen'," Julianna repeated, just as Adair had two days before. "I don't suppose you were told how, ma'am?" The formal address seemed almost ironic, as if Julianna were daring Elodie to call her disrepectful.

"No," Elodie said, pouring coffee for herself. "I asked Kiran to let me know how it was accomplished, and whether he thinks he will be safe traveling here."

Julianna nodded. "Well. Do you have your crystal, ma'am?"

"I don't know where it is," Elodie replied. "I - could my father have used it?"

"No, he would have used the Caloris crystal," Julianna said. "You said it was blue?" At Elodie's nod, Julianna went on, "The Caloris crystal was rumored to be the hue of a cloudless sky; even if the one he has bonded to is not that crystal, the royal crystal of Nova is certainly pink. It's probably in the treasury."

"I've never seen a crystal in the treasury," Elodie protested, feeling more and more off-balance - perhaps it was the early hour, or the way that Julianna seemed so calm and composed despite having fled the castle's dungeons over five and a half years before.

"It wouldn't be sitting out," Julianna said. "No, it would be in something made of gold, or at least with a gilded interior; inferior metals corrode in the presence of a crystal, and glass and stone crack."

"Since your affinity seems to be for light, Your Radiance," Selene added, "it would be appropriate for you to bond with your crystal at noon."

"I..." Elodie began, and stopped, hating how indecisive (and childish) she knew she sounded.

"You asked me here to teach you," Julianna said.

"I asked you for help against - the source of milk vipers!" Elodie replied.

"You must take up your birthright yourself," Julianna answered her, still with that unruffled - unruffle-able - calm. "The kings and queens of Nova are always Lumens. It is you who must protect your kingdom."

"I don't have any choice, do I?" Elodie said. "Fine. I'll have my luncheon appointment cancelled, and, and meet you here instead."

"You could invite all of us, and the King-Consort, to a luncheon," Charlotte suggested. "That would be less suspicious, and surely he'd want to meet us."

"All right, I'll do that," Elodie said, trying mightily not to sound resentful. She pressed her lips together a moment, then added, "Thank you."


	9. In the Treasury, and in the Peach Dining Room

After a breakfast she barely tasted, Elodie went to the treasury. Like last time, everything seemed luminous while one little gold box seemed more luminous (or perhaps Lumen-ous?) than everything else. The box was surprisingly light, and fit easily in her pocket.

It was a struggle not to look at the box. She was sure that the Lumen crystal that was hers - no, the crystal that she had inherited, it wasn't _hers_ yet - was within. She _wanted_ to think that she merely remembered the box, from when the Priestess of the First Circle had offered it to her, closed, but she knew she hadn't imagined the illusory light, not when it had happened twice in three visits.

Her final morning appointment ended just before noon, and she went directly to the Peach Dining Room, the smallest of the three formal dining rooms. Charlotte and Selene - no, she reminded herself, Flora and Ersa - were already there.

They stood up when she came in, of course; once the three of them were seated again, Selene said, "Julianna is on her way, she was-" and then nodded towards Julianna as the woman herself arrived.

"Delayed," Julianna completed Selene's sentence. "My apologies, Your Radiance."

Elodie nodded. "You arrived before the King-Consort, anyway," she said, trying for a cheerfulness she didn't feel.

The kitchen staff began setting out bowls of cold soup, including one for Adair. Elodie said the blessing over the meal, and just as she finished, Adair hurried in.

"Forgive me," he said, out of breath, as he settled into his place at Elodie's right.

"Of course," Elodie said, with a smile. "Had you met Julianna before?"

"No, I hadn't," Adair said, smiling. "You were Healer Flora's mentor in Hellas, right?"

"That's right," Julianna said. "This is Healer Ersa," she added, nodding to Selene.

Adair nodded to Selene. "Pleased to meet you," he said. "Her Radiance told me that you healed Healer Flora's voice."

"We have a few minutes before noon," Selene said.

Adair frowned at the seeming non sequitur.

"All right," Elodie said, taking the little gold box out of her pocket. "What do I do?"

"The same thing your father did," Julianna replied.

Adair turned back to Elodie, and stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, as as Elodie opened the box.

Inside was a small pink crystal which seemed to glow with its own light. Elodie took a deep breath, picked up the crystal, and placed it over her heart. "Illuminate!" she said, quietly but firmly. She wondered if pink lights were settling into her skin, the way blue lights had settled into her father's; she couldn't see anything _but_ pink light. It was dizzying, disorienting, and exhilarating; it reminded her of the delirious, incredulous giggles she and Briony had shared when they stopped to rest their horses after escaping the Old Forest.

She took a deep breath, and the light faded, as if she had breathed it all in. She felt lighter than she had before, and somehow larger, as if the light were inflating her somehow. And her hand, over her heart, was empty.

"Wow," Elodie breathed.

"Now, eat your soup, and we'll talk about training you to use that," Julianna said, as if she saw queens absorbing Lumen crystals every day and twice on Sunday.

Elodie looked down at her soup, fought back a giggle, and finally managed to eat a spoonful of it. "I don't know how I'm going to find the time," she admitted.

"'Finding the time' won't be enough, Your Radiance," Julianna said, firmly. "It will require your full attention - not the halfhearted attention you gave your teachers in school, not even the diligence you showed your tutors before your coronation, but your full attention from dawn until dusk."

"When I studied just _eight_ hours a day I still had my father doing most of the work!" Elodie objected.

Julianna turned to Adair. "Your Majesty, are you willing to hold audiences, hear petitioners, assist Her Radiance's secretary in determining which letters and petitions Her Radiance must answer personally, and the like for a month or so?"

"An entire month!" Elodie exclaimed.

"Yes, I am," Adair said - gratifyingly, he at least sounded nervous, not eager.

"Then, Your Radiance, you need to trust the King-Consort," Julianna said, turning back to Elodie.

Elodie sighed and squeezed her eyes shut. (She _had_ to do this. She _knew_ she had to do this. But Julianna - even stripped of her titles and here only because Elodie had pardoned her - somehow made her feel like she was _thirteen_ , not nearly twenty!) After a moment, she consciously relaxed the muscles in her face, opened her eyes, and said, "Of course I trust him."

"Would you prefer Selene as a teacher?" Julianna asked her.

"Julianna never harmed your mother, Your Radiance," Selene spoke up. "They were friends. But if you prefer, I can teach you; it was Julianna and your mother who taught me."

"How do _you_ even _have_ a crystal, anyway?" Elodie said. "I thought the crystals of the dukes and duchesses who died fighting the doomshadow were destroyed!"

"Lumen crystals cannot be destroyed," Selene said. "After the doomshadow fell, the Mazomba crystal was given to a priest of the Good Lady, who passed it on to his daughters. My aunt had no children, so she passed her crystal on to me when she died so that I could teach the Queen's heir if the Duchess or Duke of Ursul were unable."

Elodie closed her eyes again, trying for calm. It felt like trying to catch a snake in a barrel of olive oil.

"Your Radiance?" Adair said, hesitantly.

Elodie opened her eyes and looked at Adair in silence.

"Perhaps you and the healers, and Healer Flora's mentor, should go to Caloris to see the King-Dowager," Adair suggested. "That's why you invited Healer Flora's mentor here, isn't it?"

Elodie nodded, slowly. "Of course. That's a good idea."

"Good thinking!" Charlotte said, and though the hood hid Charlotte's face, Elodie was sure she was grinning. "That'll give Her Radiance plenty of time to study, and it explains why you'll be handling so much for her."

Elodie stirred her soup around in the bowl. "I hope you're right about this," she said.

"So do I, Your Radiance," Julianna said. "So do I."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Assuming that Elodie's strongest mood is Willful, she can reach 100 Resist Magic after 4.5 weeks (2x Wield Magic, 2x Sense Magic, 5x Resist Magic) and 100 Sense Magic 1.5 weeks later (3x Sense Magic), or 40 days total. (It'd be 42 days, but she'd be done before the sixth week's weekend. And yes, I did test this theory in-game.)  
> This, of course, assumes studying 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, or 240 hours of instruction. At 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, she would only need 20 days to reach 100 in both Sense and Resist Magic. (Another 40 hours, or 4 days, would take her to 91 Wield Magic.)  
> If it weren't for the fact that Nova apparently has the right climate for coffee to grow, I would have located it much further north so that there would be more than 12 hours of daylight!  
> (I don't think assuming Elodie's mood to be Willful is all that big of an assumption - she's Pressured at the end of the day before Charlotte returns with Julianna and Selene, going to the Treasury adds +1 Willful, and using the crystal adds +2 Cheerful +1 Willful.)


	10. In Caloris

Elodie, Charlotte, Julianna, and Selene left for Caloris the next morning at dawn. As they rode, Julianna and Selene traded off discussing magical theory; some of it was familiar from Elodie's classes in mystical lore, but most of it was new to her. It felt _right_ , though, as if the crystal she bore was confirming the truth of her teachers' words.

They arrived in late afternoon; Selene and Charlotte went immediately to speak with Elodie's father, while Julianna and Elodie went to the ducal library. Caloris's library was nearly as large as the one on Lampsi Island, which had always amazed Elodie; now that she knew that Caloris had a secret archive of magical artifacts, she wasn't surprised anymore.

"The first thing you need to learn is how to shape and wield magic," Julianna said. "Since your affinity is for light, the first thing I want you to do is learn how to make a little orb of light." She held out her hand, and a glowing ball appeared over it.

Elodie looked at the ball until her eyes started to water. "I don't know how," she said.

"You know how," Julianna told her. "You just don't _know_ you know how."

Elodie struggled for three hours that day, and for six hours the next morning before lunch. She wanted nothing more than to sleep - no doubt that was why lunch had been so light, so that she wouldn't feel groggy - but somehow, through sheer force of will, made herself rejoin Julianna after lunch. Finally, just before sunset, she managed a little orb of glowing light. Exhilarated, she sent it flying around the table.

"I told you that you knew how," Julianna said, and it felt like the best praise Elodie had ever received.

Julianna spent another two and a half days instructing Elodie in how to use that summoned light - making the orb larger and smaller, using it to dispel shadows or blind an opponent, and finally, at noon on their third full day in Caloris, flattening the orb into a thin, knife-edged disc that could slice through something, if it was thin enough, whether paper, tin foil, or lettuce at lunch.

"Do I get the rest of the afternoon off?" Elodie asked, grinning, after she finished dicing a tomato into fingernail-sized chunks.

"No," Julianna said. "Now that you know what it is like to _use_ magic, you will be better able to learn how to see it in use, and why waste the afternoon? We don't know how many days you'll have."

Elodie tried not to frown with disappointment, but Julianna seemed to see it anyway. "Take an hour," Julianna suggested. "Go for a run, or take a nap in the garden. Then we can get started."

Elodie took a blanket out to the herb garden and curled up on a bench in the shade. She didn't know how long Julianna let her sleep, but she felt amazingly refreshed when she _was_ awakened. "I'm ready," she said.

"Good," Julianna said. "This will be less flashy, so we can start the lesson right here. Close your eyes, and try to meditate deeply enough to glow - but stop before you _begin_ to glow."

The rest of the day's lesson was frustrating, enough to erase all of Elodie's excitement at having done well in _wielding_ magic: all she heard was "no, you're glowing" or "no, you're not meditating deeply enough" until the sun set.

Around eight o'clock in the morning the next day, however, Elodie managed to detect the moment that her inborn magic was about to activate. "Now what?" she asked, feeling like she was balancing on the edge of a windowsill.

"What does it feel like?" Julianna asked.

"Like... like I'm balancing on one foot, on a windowsill, holding my hands behind my back," Elodie said.

"Let yourself glow, then put the glow out," Julianna directed. When Elodie had, Julianna said, "Now keep your eyes open, and without meditating your way there, balance on that windowsill again."

Just as Elodie was about to say "I can't," she suddenly realized she _had_. "I did it!" she exclaimed, instead.

"Good," Julianna said. "Let's take a break for some coffee, and then we can get back to work."

As they left the library, however, the front doors opened, and in walked Adele, Countess of Tanagra.

"Your Radiance," Adele said, curtsying.

"Lady Adele," Elodie said, politely. "What brings you here?"

"The King-Consort sent me," Adele said, and then grinned. "I was actually hoping to find you on Lampsi Island, ma'am, but when I arrived only my step-brother was there. He sent me here, with a letter that arrived for you this morning. The seal is broken - he said you had authorized him to do so, and that only his eyes saw it."

Elodie nodded, accepting the letter from Adele. It only took her a moment to read it. "It's from Kiran," she reported, for Julianna's benefit. "He says the murderer was discovered to be a Lumen when he was shot by an archer as he tried to flee his prison cell in Lillah."

"Indeed?" Julianna asked, as if Elodie was reporting the results of a horse race. "And how was a Lumen murderer captured?"

"Kiran says that Lucille, the former Duchess of Nix, divined his location and informed the guardsmen," Elodie said. "And also that she claims that she is not a Lumen and has never been one, and that it was her husband who was the Lumen, and who impersonated her."

"How interesting," Julianna said, in exactly the same tone as before.

Adele shifted from one foot to the other. "I don't know how someone can tell," she said. "I suppose you would know, ah..."

"Just 'Julianna', now," Julianna said, with a slight smile. "And yes, one Lumen can tell another. Which is why Her Radiance and I are here; she needs to train that ability so that she can prove that Lucille is lying."

Adele frowned. "The King-Consort said you were here to help the King-Dowager."

"I couldn't very well tell the court that I was giving the King-Consort the helm while I went off to study in private," Elodie said. "But it isn't a lie; two healers did travel with us from Lampsi Island, and they _have_ been working with my father."

Adele raised an eyebrow. "Am I going to need to stay here so I don't spread rumors?" she asked.

"That depends on why you came looking for me," Elodie said, as expressionlessly as she could manage.

"To tell you about Lucille," Adele said. "And her surviving children; they're with her."

"Her 'surviving' children?" Elodie asked, and she didn't have to pretend to be worried. (Had something happened to Emry or Zahra?)

"Apparently Lucille's husband took their oldest daughter, his heir, with him when he fled Merva, and when Laurent was killed, Charlotte was never seen again," Adele said. "It's just her son and her younger daughter with her now."

"Oh, Charlotte," Elodie said, sadly.

"I know you were close," Adele said, sympathetically. "In any event, her other children seem well, but... something just doesn't seem right. Not just them, or Charlotte, but... something about _everything_ , with Mother's death and Kiran taking Lucille as an advisor. It almost seems like he wants her to _adopt_ him!"

Elodie looked at Julianna, who looked back at her. "Yes, Your Radiance?" Julianna asked, after a moment.

"We need to get back to work, don't we?" Elodie said. "Could you tell Healer Flora and Healer Ersa that Lady Adele has arrived? They might want to talk to her, and I want some coffee and something to eat before we get back to lessons."

Julianna nodded and left.

"I don't know the palace healers, ma'am," Adele said, following Elodie to the small dining room.

"I don't want to leave you alone when you came here to meet with me," Elodie said, with a smile.

By the time Elodie and Adele were at the smaller of the two tables in the private dining room (Caloris's formal dining room was much smaller than the grand dining room on Lampsi Island, and the private dining room was less than half its size), Julianna was returning with 'Flora' and 'Ersa'.

At Elodie's nod, Charlotte sat to her right; Selene and Julianna sat on the other side of the table, on either side of Adele. The cook herself came out of the kitchen with coffee and cinnamon rolls, and then vanished back into the kitchen once they had all been served.

"I really do need to get back to studying," Elodie apologized, after she'd had a few bites of cinnamon roll, "but I think you and Healer Flora might have a very interesting conversation." She turned to Charlotte. "Did Julianna tell you what Lady Adele told me about Lillah?"

"She did," Charlotte said, seeming to have more difficulty than usual speaking loudly enough to be heard. Then she pushed back her hood.

Adele frowned, then stared.

"I didn't go with my father," Charlotte said, hiding her face again.

Elodie smiled her most inoffensive, bland smile (sitting patiently and listening to petitioners for five years had given her a whole repertoire of smiles for various occasions) and took another bite of her cinnamon roll.

"I see," Adele said. "I suppose you'll want me to stay here, so I don't tell my brother this?"

"I don't think Her Radiance would keep you a prisoner," Charlotte said.

Adele glanced over at Julianna, then hastily tried to pretend she hadn't looked.

"I would ask that you you not tell your brother," Elodie said, "but 'Healer Flora' is correct; I will not keep you a prisoner here."

Adele licked her lips. "I... I won't tell Kiran, I was never going to," she said, anxiously, "but if I go back to him, won't... won't his 'advisor' be able to... know what I know?"

"Lumens cannot read minds," Julianna said, calmly. "Nor does the Good Lady grant that ability to priestesses."

Elodie cut a segment off her cinnamon roll and ate it, to give herself some time for thought. When she had finished it, she said, carefully, "I'm sure the King-Consort could find a reason to require your presence. He must be quite overwhelmed while I am here with my father, even though the season between Fishes and Loaves is the least busy time at court."

"I could write a letter for you to sign and seal, Your Radiance," Charlotte suggested, "so that you could go back to your studies."

Elodie started to refuse, then realized, with a start, that she was actually _eager_ to get back to her studies of magic. Perhaps that was because it had taken her less than nine hours to grasp the first lesson on sensing magic, unlike the grueling fifteen hours she had spent mastering the first lesson on wielding magic?

"Thank you, Healer Flora," Elodie said. She slipped her signet ring off her finger and held it out. "Please keep this for me until suppertime."


	11. In Caloris and in the Queen's Tower

Charlotte had a letter for Adair ready for Elodie at suppertime; Elodie was amused (and a little disturbed) at how easily Charlotte had produced a letter that she could have written herself.

Despite Julianna warning her not to stay up too late, Elodie spent an hour past dusk composing a letter to send to Kiran. In the end, she adopted a tone of grateful surprise that Arisse's murderer had been caught, and asked him to join her on Lampsi Island so that she might confirm his title as Duke of Lillah.

Her dreams that night were uneasy and unhappy, but as soon as she resumed her studies of magic the next morning, all of her worries seemed to vanish. She had put them out of her head so completely, in fact, that she was startled to learn, at suppertime, that Adele had returned safely to Lampsi Island.

Three days later, at the end of her sixth full day in Caloris, Elodie was finally able to identify spells cast by either Selene or Julianna to the latter's satisfaction.

"Now what?" she asked, as they walked to the small dining room for supper.

"Tomorrow we'll start teaching you to resist magic," Julianna replied. "Another week, and you'll be able to resist anything one person can cast at you."

To Elodie's surprise, by suppertime seven days later she could indeed resist almost any mind-affecting magic without a conscious shield, partially resist some body-affecting magic, and _with_ a consciously cast shield she could _completely_ resist anything that Julianna or Selene could cast alone, just like Julianna had promised. She could barely believe that she had known nothing at all of magic fifteen days ago.

"Is it like this for _everyone_?" she asked, after a conjured rock had bounced off her head like it and her head were both made of rubber.

"No," Selene said. "Not everyone has the potential to learn, and those that do have it do not learn nearly so quickly. But your mother drew on her crystal while she was carrying you, and since you now bear that crystal, it recognizes you."

"If you hadn't been the daughter of an active Lumen, I wouldn't have suggested we work from dawn until dusk," Julianna said. "And even still, you mastered the lessons I had for you about half again as quickly as I expected; if I were to try to train the King-Dowager, I would expect him to take twice as many hours to get as far as you have, and not be able to work as many hours in a day."

Elodie nodded. "I - I almost wish you did, that you could."

"So do I," Selene said, and Elodie turned to her in surprise as she continued, "I think that's the only thing that will help him, though even if he agreed to learn today I don't think he'll ever get the last five years back."

"But he might get the time between my birth and his duel back?" Elodie asked.

"He might," Selene said. "I had hoped that being around other Lumens would help, but it didn't."

Elodie nodded again. As they reached the dining room, a page stopped her. "Your Radiance," he said, bowing. "A courier is waiting for you in the library."

Elodie frowned. "Thank you," she said, absently. "Would you tell my father I'll be there as soon as I can?" she asked.

"Certainly," Julianna said. She and Selene continued into the dining room, and then Elodie hurried to the library.

Adele was waiting inside. "Good evening, Your Radiance," she said, standing and curtsying.

"Good evening," Elodie replied.

"This arrived for you at the capital this morning, ma'am," Adele said, holding out a letter. "Only the King-Consort has read it."

Elodie nodded and opened the letter. Then she folded it back up. "Thank you, Lady Adele," she said. "Would you like to join us for supper?"

"I would be honored," Adele said. "Was it... good news?"

"Not really," Elodie said, but smiled anyway. "But I'm glad you brought it for me."

After supper, Elodie fished the letter out of her pocket and held it up, before saying, "Kiran has replied, by bird rather than courier: he, his brother Thaddeus, and his new advisor have left Lillah for Lampsi Island today - the letter is dated yesterday and says 'tomorrow', anyway." She smiled at her father. "So we will be leaving for Lampsi Island tomorrow, so that we are there to welcome them."

"Kiran, that's one of Arisse's children, isn't he?" Joslyn asked.

Elodie nodded. "Her oldest by her second husband," she said. "Duchess Arisse has died, and so he needs to be confirmed as Duke."

"You told me," Joslyn said, irritated. "I know I don't remember well these days, but I remember you saying that. And that you were here to," he sighed, "learn magic because you thought her killer was a Lumen."

Elodie narrowed her eyes a little, surprised. "Do you remember why you don't have a good memory anymore?" she asked.

"No," Joslyn said, shortly.

Elodie didn't get the impression that he was lying, just that he was annoyed at being asked the same question yet again, but to her surprise she felt disappointed - she actually _wanted_ him to be lying, _wanted_ him to have had his memory restored just by being in the presence of three Lumens and one potential Lumen.

After a moment of awkward silence, Elodie said, "Do you want to come up to the capital with us?"

Joslyn shook his head. "I'll be coming up for your birthday, but I think I'll stay here another fortnight," he said.

Charlotte glanced at him, then at Elodie. "Your Majesty," she said, "I would be happy to stay; I think we've made good progress on unlocking your memories, and I'd like to keep helping you." After a moment, she chuckled, and added, "Besides, I wouldn't be any help to Her Radiance in her studies."

Julianna and Selene looked at one another for a moment, and Elodie was almost convinced that Selene had lied and Lumens _could_ read minds. Finally, Julianna said, "I think that would be an excellent idea, Your Radiance. Neither Healer Ersa or Healer Flora have duties in the capital they need to return to, after all."

Elodie nodded.

"Thank you," Joslyn said, and smiled. "You're welcome here as long as you'd like to stay, Healer Flora."

The next morning, Elodie, Julianna, 'Healer Ersa', and Adele rode back to Lampsi Island. On the way, Julianna continued Elodie's lessons, resuming her instruction on sensing magic. They arrived just before suppertime, and the cooks had been warned that they were coming, so there was supper ready in the Plum Dining Room for five - the four of them plus Adair.

They didn't discuss anything serious over dinner, but afterwards, Adair went with Elodie back to her suite. "So, are you a Lumen now?" he asked.

"Technically, I was one the day before I left for Caloris," Elodie said, stepping into her bedroom and leaving Adair in the sitting room while Alice helped her change out of the dress she'd worn for dinner.

"You know what I meant," Adair said.

"I can't do much except resist magic, but I guess so," Elodie said. She emerged from the bedroom in a loose blouse and pajama pants, and flopped gracelessly into an armchair. "I feel like my eyes are going to melt out of my head and my brain seep out my ears if I keep working this hard, and Kiran will be here to be confirmed as a duke in..." She counted on her fingers. "Three days."

"Are you going to make appearances at court?" Adair asked.

"I think I have to, don't I?" Elodie said, shaking her head. "What I'm thinking of doing is working after sunset to catch up on the letters you and the secretaries have left for me, and just... fitting lessons _around_ hearing petitioners, meeting with guilds, and... and everything." She let her head fall against the back of the armchair.

Adair stood up and walked around behind her, and put his hands on her shoulders. "You can do it, Elodie," he said. "I know it. And after everything's gone back to normal after your birthday, we can spend a whole week catching frogs in Mazomba. Some of the frogs there spend their whole lives swimming like fish!"

Elodie leaned back against his hands. "Only twenty days."

"That's right!" Adair said, cheerfully. "And you can wait until tomorrow to spend all night reading letters, too."

Elodie twisted around to look at him, and he smiled.

"I've missed you," he said, simply.

"I missed you too," Elodie answered, leaning back against his hands again. "I'm glad to be home."


	12. Around the Castle

The next morning, Elodie studied from dawn until nine o'clock in the morning, then sat down with her secretary and the King-Consort's secretary to catch up on letters and other paperwork until noon. She had lunch with her minister of the treasury, and then met with the admirals' council for two hours, and finally, at three o'clock in the afternoon, went back to studying magic. She had an informal supper with her uncle Armand to discuss various issues in the duchy of Mazomba, and then after supper she reviewed a report from Duchess Gwenelle on a Pyrian raid into the border county of Orcus.

She managed not to fall asleep at her desk, but waking up in the morning was difficult, and that next day was exactly as busy as the one before it. She and Julianna had cold soup for supper, and afterwards, Julianna handed her a small leather traveling bag.

"What's this?" Elodie asked, setting it unopened on her lap.

"I sent word to Briony while we were still in Caloris asking her if she knew a seamstress in Mead who could make something appropriate for an apprentice Lumen," Julianna said. "The priestesses here had prepared something for you when you returned from boarding school, but what looks good on a fourteen-year-old won't look good on someone nearly twenty."

Elodie carefully opened the traveling bag and began unpacking it. The first item in it was a low-cut, short-sleeved, bright pink blouse; when she shook it out to look at it, two gold armlets fell back into the case. She set them and the blouse aside, and pulled out the next item: a pair of soft-soled shoes, the same color as the blouse, and white socks to wear with them. Next was a frilly pink skirt with three layers of fabric, and finally, at the bottom of the bag, was a pair of cloud-shaped barrettes.

"Thank you," she said, feeling surprised and a little overwhelmed.

"Wearing something appropriate for the task will make it easier to use your magical ability," Julianna said, "and while your priestess robes would have sufficed in a pinch, these will clearly identify you as a Lumen, and that will give you more confidence in addition to amplifying your ability."

"She's going to be here tomorrow," Elodie said, turning one of the barrettes over and over in her hands. "I don't know what I'll be able to do by tomorrow."

"She might plead fatigue and not come until the morning," Julianna said.

"She might plead fatigue and kill me in my sleep!" Elodie said, throwing the barrette back into the bag. It didn't even make a sound as it hit, so, puzzled, she pulled the bag all the way open.

"It's shielded," Julianna said. "And also made of keythong leather."

"Keythong leather!" Elodie exclaimed, recoiling a little bit.

"It isn't going to bite you," Julianna said, exasperated rather than amused, and flicked the bag with a fingernail. "It's just leather."

"I thought keythongs couldn't be killed," Elodie said.

"They're _difficult_ to kill," Julianna said. "This bag dates from your great-grandfather's reign - it may have been from the keythong that he, the Duke of Ursul, a few minor priests, and about two dozen archers killed shortly after his coronation, actually."

"When one attacked in Caloris, my father said it was best just to let them go away," Elodie said.

"It is," Julianna replied. "For some monsters, there's no choice but to fight them, but for most of them, the loss of life isn't worth it, especially since if they're fought with magic, that magic might draw more monsters in turn. The keythong in question had killed King Fulbert's brother, however, and the king was... not willing to let it escape."

"Oh," Elodie said. "And then it got turned into _luggage_?"

"Keythong leather is just about the only thing that can hold magical items without being gilded on the inside or enchanted," Julianna said. "And unlike a gilded suitcase, it wouldn't draw much attention." She flicked it with a fingernail again. "It's yours, if you want it."

"This has to be worth a... a million lassi!" Elodie protested.

"Yes," Julianna said. "But I have a smaller bag that should hold everything magical I own, and I'm not a wanted fugitive anymore, so I don't need to be ready to travel at a moment's notice."

"I want to give you a noble title," Elodie said, impulsively. "To thank you for your teaching, and so you outrank her, again."

"I think the other nobles would frown on purchasing a county with luggage," Julianna replied.

"You didn't!" Elodie said, and then realized Julianna was teasing her. "You really didn't," she repeated, less emphatically. "I want to thank you for your instruction."

"Let Kiran have his day," Julianna suggested. "Confirm him in his title, and when he's gone home, do what you like."

"Would - would you be willing to be your brother's subject?" Elodie asked. "That way the Ursul crystal will stay in Ursul."

"Are you going to grant Merva to Charlotte?" Julianna asked, bluntly. "If you are, I think I would prefer to be her subject than Ignatius's. If you aren't, then yes, I am willing to be an Ursulan again."

"I hadn't thought about it," Elodie admitted.

"If you are, I could suggest that she ask you to grant me the title. That would be better," Julianna said.

"I... hadn't thought about it," Elodie said again. "Should I?"

"That's up to you, Your Radiance. Now, if you're ready, I will cause a magical effect; let me know what you think it is supposed to do."


End file.
